Hello Sifted reader,

This week's episode of Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast brings you the inside scoop on growing pains at Typeform, another $28m for an AI startup going toe-to-toe with the likes of Google and Microsoft and Monzo's latest financial results. Listen here.

Also, the Sifted Summit agenda is now live! Join us October 4-5 for two jam-packed days covering everything from scaling stateside to quantum computing breaking the internet. There's also still time to get dough off your tickets.

From the Sifted newsroom:

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📉 Checkout.com 's internal valuation has been cut by another 15%, people familiar with the matter tell Sifted. That's after the fintech first downgraded the internal value of its shares just seven months ago. The cut should bring its internal valuation down to around $9.35bn.

💳 Monzo released its numbers for the 12 months to the end of February, revealing a doubling of revenue to £355.6m and a tripling of its lending book. But it made just a €3m improvement on its pre-tax losses compared to last year, to £116m. Despite the figures, CEO TS Anil still has his sights set on profitability next year.

🩺 Peter Thiel invests in UK-based healthtech. The German-American billionaire has added Lindus Health to his portfolio — Sifted understands he chipped in around $1m to the startup, which is building a platform to speed up clinical trials for health and biotech companies.

✈️ GetYourGuide bucks the downturn and bags $194m. The company, which offers a platform to book travel experiences, has gone from an "unsexy startup" to a German unicorn starting to crack America. It's just drummed up an $85m equity round plus $109m in a revolving credit facility, and although it hasn't disclosed its valuation, sources say it's around $2bn.

🧑‍⚕️ King's College London spinout Hypervision Surgical has raised £6.5m for its hyperspectral imaging software that makes it easier for surgeons to distinguish between healthy and infected tissue during procedures — HERAN Partners, Redalpine, LifeX Ventures and Zeiss Ventures pitched into the seed round.

🏡 UK online mortgage broker Habito has a new CEO. Founder Daniel Hegarty has stepped down after a turbulent few years for the UK property market. The company's also raised fresh funding.

🧺 Spanish laundry service startup Jeff has declared bankruptcy after failing to pay its employees' salaries for nine months.

Small but mighty: Vienna’s startup scene is still growing

Vienna isn’t only a top-ranked place to live, it’s a top destination for entrepreneurs to quickly launch, fund and test their businesses. We uncover why innovators and VCs are setting up shop in the coffeehouse capital and what experts say is needed to keep up the momentum.

Read the report

Who is he?

Michiel Scheffer: former minister, founder and angel investor — and the new president of the European Innovation Council (EIC) fund.

Why does it matter?

The fund has a budget of more than €10bn to support the continent's startups and research. However, it's had its struggles, and failed to deliver promised payments to a number of startups, some of which were left on the brink of bankruptcy. It even handed over responsibility for final investment decisions to a private investor, Alter Domus, in September last year, and due diligence responsibilities to the European Investment Bank (EIB).

What's his plan?

Scheffer spoke to Sifted about his plans to write bigger tickets for deeptech, hopes to increase the fund's max ticket size and new ideas to shake up grant options.

💊 “It’s like medicine — with AI,” says Mattias Bernow, the CEO of Cellcolabs, which is working on potential treatments for cancer, Type 1 diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's — all by using the modern miracle of cell therapy. And his startup's not the only one innovating in the space.

🕵️‍♀️ How to do due diligence on your investors. Putting money into a duff company can be disastrous, but bringing the wrong investor on board can also be the death knell for a fledgling company. Here's how to do due diligence on your investors, and why it matters.

🤝 How to hire advisers — Napala Pratini, cofounder of digital therapy app Habitual, shares her top tips.

🤖 What the rise of AI means for the climate fight. (Sponsored by BCG X.)

💰 Series A+

SellerX, one of Europe's biggest ecommerce aggregators, is set to acquire US ecommerce aggregator Elevate Brands — it's also raised equity funding of €60m in a round led by Sofina, with participation from investors like L Catterton, Cherry Ventures and Felix Capital.

💰 Pre-seed and seed

France's Zeliq, which provides AI-powered solutions for sales teams, has raised €5m in pre-seed funding led by Resonance.
Klearly, a Dutch payments app for small and medium businesses, has raised €2.1m in a pre-seed round led by Antler and Global PayTech Ventures.

💰 Undisclosed

Cross-border payments platform NomuPay, based in Ireland, has raised $53.6m.
France's Riverse, a platform to buy and sell carbon credits, has raised €1.5m in a round led by Speedinvest.
Germany's bNear, which offers a virtual office for remote workers, has raised €1m.